“Erdogan dictator”: from Draghi rhetorical shit for internal use. Self-inflicted EU humiliation in Ankara

9 April 20213 years ago babelfish

Wanting to avenge the humiliation suffered by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on her visit to Ankara, Prime Minister Mario Draghi stigmatized the behavior of Turkish President Erdogan in yesterday's unfortunate press conference, explaining in a contemptuous tone that unfortunately, we know, we must deal with "these dictators", we must "cooperate" to protect our national interest.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry immediately summoned the Italian ambassador to Ankara and Minister Cavusoglu reacted harshly via Twitter : "We strongly condemn the unacceptable populist rhetoric of the Italian prime minister appointed Mario Draghi and his ugly and inexorable statements about our elected president ".

In short, a diplomatic incident that we did not need, precisely because we have chosen – Europe and Italy have chosen – to cooperate with Erdogan, not to oppose him, and our actions are proving it.

The prime minister's sincerity galvanized the Eurolyrics and the True Liberals, who in his words saw human rights and European values defended, but this is a false step. For two reasons. First , it is a sincerity that clashes with the realism that Draghi himself professed, recognizing that we must "cooperate" with dictators: but how can one think of cooperating by insulting them? And, even more importantly, we do not have to generically "deal with Erdogan", Turkey is still a NATO ally.

Second , Erdogan is detestable for many reasons, because he is an Islamist, for his aggressive and blackmailing policies, but technically he is not a dictator (at least not yet). It is authoritarian, it has political opponents and inconvenient journalists arrested, it is evidently a threat to the fragile Turkish democracy, but it has not yet formally liquidated it. The regularity of his latest election was also recognized by the opposition parties and the mayors of Ankara and Istanbul are leaders of the opposition. In short, the situation is more complex and Cavusoglu had a good game remembering that while Erdogan is elected by the people, Draghi is nominated .

Erdogan dictator, Putin killer. Draghi's misstep is on a smaller scale similar to Biden's, rhetorical shit for internal use and consumption, not politics. Both releases show a worrying propensity for gaffe and lack of clarity of those who uttered them.

Especially in international politics, it is counterproductive to raise the tone when you are not ready to follow up on your words with deeds. Are we going to counter Erdogan's ambitions in the Eastern Mediterranean and Libya? And how? Are we ready to take the faucet of the flow of migrants out of his hands? Does anyone think of doing without Turkey in NATO? With yesterday's release Draghi seems to align with the Biden administration's approach: “Speak harshly and carry a small stick” .

Furthermore, the reading of the sofa-gate , of the sofa accident, by Draghi at the press conference, by most of the media and in Brussels, arouses many, many perplexities…

Considering the different sources, the feeling is that like many other EU humiliations, that of President Von der Leyen in Ankara was more than anything else self-inflicted.

Here too the reality risks being more complex. As explained by Mariano Giustino, correspondent of Radio Radicale in Turkey, not an admirer of Erdogan, the summit was wanted and prepared for some time by the Turkish president, who had every interest in being able to boast a success, also to calm the markets and internal public opinion demonstrating that it is not isolated from the West.

In Turkey, even from the sides of the opposition, there is therefore no belief in a deliberate choice by Erdogan. The protocol of these summits is studied down to the smallest detail by the representatives of the two parties and according to the Turkish officials it was a mess combined by the EU representation, which would have indicated the Prime Minister Michel as the only equal rank of Erdogan, not mentioning to the Turkish presidential ceremonial that the president of the European Commission is of the same level.

But even more so, if it had been a deliberate act on Erdogan's part to humiliate her, the first to resign would have to be President Michel for having volunteered. The fact is that Borrell humiliated by Lavrov, Von der Leyen in Ankara, the EU leaders take slaps as they move.

The post “Erdogan dictator”: from Draghi rhetorical shit for internal use. Self- inflicted EU humiliation in Ankara appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/erdogan-dittatore-da-draghi-fuffa-retorica-ad-uso-interno-ad-ankara-umiliazione-ue-autoinflitta/ on Fri, 09 Apr 2021 04:00:00 +0000.